


The Las Lomas Country Club

by alejacdlm



Category: La Casa de las Flores | The House of Flowers (TV)
Genre: Brief mentions of other characters - Freeform, Bruno loves tennis even as a small child, Gen, I tried to do the math right okay, Julián is still useless as a teenager, Past setting so it's still José María, but soft, he was a soft boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:06:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21564235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alejacdlm/pseuds/alejacdlm
Summary: Paulina, five years into marriage, is maybe still waiting for a bit more freedom. But, you know what, if her party planning lets her relax at her favorite country club with her husband and young son, it might be alright.
Relationships: Paulina de la Mora/José María Riquelme, Paulina de la Mora/María José Riquelme
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	The Las Lomas Country Club

It’s Julián’s 18th birthday, and they’ve rented out the lounge of the country club – they being Paulina, finally pushed back into managing her family’s events and image (and cabaret) after taking three years off since Bruno’s birth. It’s Bruno’s first trip to the club, dutifully sticking to his young mother’s side as she walks Julián around, making suggestions for where things should go. They don’t get far before Julián sees his friend having a drink in the lounge, still open to the public for a few more days, and abandons them. Paulina just sees him off, getting an affirmative nod to continue without him, before deciding to get a drink for herself and go sit in the outside lounge with the awkward blonde toddler who was aiming to follow his immature uncle.

At 26, Paulina would rather be starting her own business than serving as event management for her kid brother – she has an MBA from the US, she could take on the world. It’s not that she doesn’t love them, obviously, but her undying loyalty has given her that taste of an adult career from the opportunity she’s had helping her father and Roberta run the cabaret. First, it was ‘you didn’t see us kissing in the back room’ when she was just Julián’s age, then it was ‘you have your own apartment, can we send the alcohol license there so your mother doesn’t find out?’, before Roberta trusted her enough to put that expensive degree to good use. Though she thinks the real reason was because she got married, Roberta thinking she was no longer under Virginia’s thumb.

She got married, and soon it will be their fifth wedding anniversary – overshadowed by her brother’s birthday in their mother’s eyes, but not to her. She’ll decorate this place to the nines and have a comfortable night at home with José María and Bruno. In fact, she’ll call Jo’ma now. It’s a beautiful day, she doesn’t have anything to do, and they can relax with table service drinks all the way out by the golf courses, alone. Perfection.

José María says he’s on his way, leaving early from his junior role with some overheating excuse just because he’s so in love. And Paulina said they should have a lazy afternoon and relax. Paulina barely took time for herself before she met José María, being worried and stressed since the age of six, when Elena was born and she had to somewhat nanny her (Delia was brought in when it was clear the six year old could not convince a baby to stay quiet through the night, but the damage was done). José María took things slow – he still got worried, but he was always calm and never reacted like anything was a big deal. He was soft but quietly in control. Maybe it was the Spanish nature, the way he languidly strolled through the Mexican heat, refusing to study in the afternoons, and often drinking but never getting drunk, never boisterous. Perfect for a lawyer, too, really.

The first time they had met was, in fact, in the same lounge at the country club. Her father was looking for a legal advisor with discretion for the cabaret, beginning at the university, where he thought their loyalty to Virginia would be minimal enough to give him a fighting chance – the professors were modern, yes, but just too busy imparting knowledge to do it, no matter the pay. He went to three before realizing they’d all given the same recommendation: about to graduate, a young Spanish man with a soft face who was kind to everyone but had a wicked smirk. He’d be up for the drag bar, and could keep his secret – well, he had no ties to Mexico at all. José María Riquelme, all of 20, was thus cordially invited to the most exclusive country club, told to order anything from the bar but just went for a mango-based cocktail. The barman laughed and gave him two, saying that he knew he was here for the de la Moras and that the same cocktail was the usual order of Paulina, their eldest daughter – also 20 and sitting at the window table with her father. “You can’t miss her, the one in the purple dress”.

She looked serious but nervous, and José María made a point of being melodramatic when setting the cocktail down for her. A brief introduction and she couldn’t take the smile off her face. José María was in love, would have agreed to anything to see her smile again – it wasn’t her mouth so much, but when she smiled her eyes, otherwise permanently tired even when she laughs, looked so young. A year later they were married and got a city apartment, no colonial outskirts – two years after that they had a son. They both got softer, but more determined.

That meeting was on both of their minds, and José María dutifully got two of the mango cocktails and went to find his little family. They were beautiful, Bruno chasing after a football some older boys were happy to let him play with, Paulina in a lawn chair keeping a watch but not actually doing anything. Paulina smiles so radiantly when José María arrives by her side, reaching for his hand in less than a second, only to have the glass put in hers – a laugh, and then their free hands connecting. A small kiss before José María hands his drink off to grab their son, not swinging him around in the macho display most young Mexican men (and certainly young Mexican fathers) would. He just picks the three-year-old Bruno up, cradles him, sways a little bit as the child starts kissing his beard. Paulina’s walked over and kisses them both, before they make their way out from the clubhouse to the sports pitches, hoping to find a sunny spot between the tennis courts and the golf courses.

Of course, Bruno gets distracted by people playing tennis – he does whenever it’s on the television, and the couple know they’re going to have to let him play once he’s big enough to pick up a racquet. But at the moment, it’s Dora Cohen and her society friends playing. Though Dora’s closer to her own mother’s age, Paulina was the one invited by her to events often now, with Dora’s own son being only one year old. He’s sat in a crib by the centreline, a crib that Bruno is about to throw a stray ball at before José María stops him.

Dora Cohen is quite lovely, and invites Bruno to play with baby Moises, having the couple sit at the edge of the court to watch before swapping in. Well, they spend more time drinking, and José María has to insist he’s never met Rafael Nadal. They decline playing, more than happy to just be. Paulina sits up against the fence, with José María carefully spread on her lap, his head tucked into her chest and shoulder. Just being with Paulina, really, feels like enough.


End file.
